Notes on Kodi Phonology

Abstract

This paper describes aspects of the phonology of Kodi, an Austronesian language of Sumba, Indonesia. Based on the analysis of recordings of an elicited word list, the description covers the segmental phonology, syllable structure, stress and the spreading of palatalization and labialization features. A pervasive feature of Kodi is a number of morphophonological processes that result in most words alternating between a longer and shorter form. These include antepenultimate vowel reduction, paragoge and apocope, as well as productive synchronic metathesis of a word-final vowel and the preceding consonant. When a word with identical vowel qualities in the two final syllables undergoes metathesis, it results in a double vowel. By measuring hundreds of vowel lengths in our data, we show that double vowels are phonetically distinct in length from stress-induced vowel lengthening in Kodi.

Keywords

• kodi
• austronesian
• phonology
• metathesis
• double vowels